HERstory for peace: Women’s Workshops

HERstory for peace: Women’s Workshops in Cyprus and on the island of Ireland is a series of women’s meetings and experiential workshops where women’s history and gender equality meet peace education and peace building! The project was implemented by the Center for Gender Equality and History (Cyprus) in collaboration with the Herstory Education Trust based in Ireland.

It was funded primarily by the European Programme Erasmus+ and co-funded by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) as well as the Department of Culture (Northern Ireland), the Belfast City Council, and the Northern Ireland Youth Forum. The project started in 1 February 2022 and officially closed its circle of activities in 30 November 2023.

The aim of the project is to use the lens of women’s history to tackle the continuous marginalisation of women from the peace-building efforts and to empower Cypriot and Irish/Northern Irish women to be active agents of both peace and gender equality.

Indeed, although the international community has recognized the value of women’s full and equal participation in conflict resolution, peace building, peace keeping, and in post-conflict reconstruction, the importance of women’s contribution in building a culture of peace and women’s participation in negotiation processes is still overlooked.

Between 1992 and 2019 women across the world were on average only 13 per cent of the negotiators, 6 per cent of the mediators and 6 per cent of the signatories in major peace processes (see the UN General Secretary report of 2021 on women, peace and security).

At the same time, although women in Cyprus and the island of Ireland have long been working for peace, their contributions and their stories remain unknown especially to the vast majority of the younger generations.In this context, women’s history, and the social experience of being a woman in Cyprus and on the island of Ireland will be used as educational tools, or as vehicles, for both peace education and women’s empowerment.

WOMEN'S HISTORY AND PEACE EDUCATION IN ONE CURRICULUM

Below you can find the lesson plans used for our workshops in Cyprus and Ireland and here is a Brief Report describing our pedagogical approach and educational methodology along with the significance of particular activities included in the lesson plans and the impact of the activities to the participants. 

The report closes with a list of practical ‘tips’ for anyone who is interested in implementing similar workshops either in the context of women’s empowerment, peace education or history teaching. If you find this material helpful and you need further clarifications or guidance in implementing them, please contact us! We are very happy to help you spread the work

The lesson plans and workshops we developed are available for you to download and use for free: Click on this link.

A SERIES OF SHORT VIDEOS
TO SPREAD THE STORIES OF CYPRIOT WOMEN

During the workshops, the women participants prepared and presented short stories about women. Particularly in the Cypriot workshops, the enthusiasm regarding the untold stories of Cypriot women who worked for peace, gender equality, and the advancement of society overall resulted in an event where the participants gave presentations on such stories to a wider audience. The insightful stories made both the project team and the participants to want to increase the visibility of such stories. In this context, the Center for Gender Equality and History has announced the launching of a series of short videos based on the stories presented during the relevant event. Press below to watch the first of those videos with English subtitles. 

AN ONLINE CONFERENCE AND A PODCAST ON HERSTORY FOR PEACE

To learn more about the project and the concept of women’s history in relevance to women’s empowerment, gender equality, and peace building, listen to this insightful 10-minutes podcast and watch the online conference marking the completion of the Herstory for Peace project. 

Watch the conference recording via KILF’s Facebook page here and listen to the podcast via Soundcloud.